February 2008

February 28, 2008

Inspired by Japanese manga (comic books) and anime (animation), the illustrations of Italian designer Simone Legno have become immensely popular to an international audience. Legno has successfully branded his work, marketed, and licensed his tokidoki collection on everything from hand bags to skate decks; the current obsession by some collectors is nothing less than astonishing.

Lynda Weinman has produced a series of videos online at lynda.com that document Legno's creative process from start to finish. In them, Lynda interviews Legno, and we observe him drawing his characters in his sketch book - then complete them in Adobe Illustrator. The series consists of 10 short videos. Unfortunately, most are available to subscribers only. "Shame on you Lynda!" During the first session this summer, I'll be offering Art 186 -
Computer Graphics with Adobe Illustrator at Cerritos College as a hybrid course and encourage anyone interested in Illustrator to look at Simone Legno's work for inspiration.

As a parenthetical note, the visual similarity between the work of Simone Legno and Takashi Murakami is striking (See my Blog, Murakami | The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA). However, what distinguishes one from the other is that Murakami's work is framed by a Fine Art context, and by misinterpreting and appropriating concepts of minimal and pop art, specifically Andy Warhol, Murakami successfully adopts the modus operandi of advertising, brands his characters, thereby blurring the distinction between high and low art. Simone Legno's frame of reference, on the other hand, is strictly commercial (i.e., design / illustration). There is nothing in his work that challenges conventional ideas. He sometimes ventures out by making a facile attempt at painting but remains wholly rooted in commercial art. Legno's characters compared to Murakami's are a pastiche and nothing more.

The thrust of this comparison lies not in the stylistic similarity between Legno and Murakami, or high vs. low art, but with respect to each artist's ability to brand his collection and license it to every kind of product imaginable. What makes Legno and Murakami interesting to me is how they have taken the notion of branding and dialed it up to a degree that would make even the most astute ad man envious.

February 24, 2008

This past weekend my wife stumbled upon an incredible website, H2O Playlist. H2O is a web-based home for educational collaboration, in beta, and founded by The Berkman Center For Internet & Society at Harvard University. Educators and students alike can benefit by using this tool, which should be familiar to anyone who has used Playlists in iTunes.The concept is very similar.

H2O playlists are more than just a cool, sleek technology -- they
represent a new way of thinking about education online. An H2O Playlist
is a series of links to books, articles, and other materials that
collectively explore an idea or set the stage for a course, discussion,
or current event.

February 19, 2008

Long before computers, I worked for many years as an airbrush illustrator. As a commercial artist, I discovered the importance of making rapid, seamless (i.e.-undetectable) changes to my artwork. Mistakes will happen, but when there’s a deadline looming, a plan for making clean repairs is essential. Additionally, it is important to note that changes are part-and-parcel of the business; clients nearly always want to make “improvements” to the artwork you create.

With some forethought, you can develop techniques to render your artwork non-destructive. This will make the modifications quick, easy, and more enjoyable, while demonstrating your value as an effective and knowledgeable professional.

For users of draw programs like Adobe Illustrator, making nondestructive artwork is a slam dunk provided you don't go to the dark side and Rasterize objects. Draw programs create Vector Images, and by default, offer the user the luxury of multiple undos. Command + Z (Macintosh) or Control + Z is your friend. The default setting for many programs is 10 undos, and depending on which program your using, can be increased to as many as 200 undos.

On the other hand, Bitmap/Raster Images created in programs like Photoshop are less forgiving and require more planning. Photoshop is a 'memory hog' and technically has only one undo. The introduction of the history panel now permits you to go back 20 steps, but it is important to note that each click of the mouse constitutes a step, and the history panel is cleared as soon as you close the file. Therefore, don't rely on the undo command, or History Panel. It's advisable to take a different tack in order to avert a serious disaster.

Everyone needs to devise their own system, but until you develop yours, my recommendation is to do the following:

Save your files often, and name them in sequential order (i.e., file.01, file.02, etc.). This will give you access to earlier versions of your project should you desire to pursue another direction later or realize you have made a serious mistake.

Duplicate layers and place them in Layer Groups in Photoshop. Turn the duplicate layers' visibility off and use them as "spare parts."

In Photoshop use Layer Masks whenever possible.

Photoshop CS3 users now have the luxury of applying filters that are nondestructive by turning layers into Smart Objects.

Illustrator users should use Effects instead of Filters because Filters are permanent, and Effects are editable and nondestructive.

In Photoshop, create a New Snapshot of your document using the History Panel. This feature enables you to save alternate versions of your project while your working on it, but as I mentioned before, disappears when you close the file.

To discover you've painted yourself into a corner with a project can be exasperating. Having to start your project over from scratch is disheartening. This often leads students to throw up their hands in despair and give up. Sadly, I see this happen all too often.

Accept the fact that it's not possible to avoid disaster in every situation. Technology isn't perfect, and we're not perfect, but if you follow some of the suggestions outlined above, I believe you'll have a much more enjoyable, and less stressful, journey on your way to learning computer graphics.

If any of my readers have something to add, I would love to hear from you.

February 13, 2008

The Murakami exhibition at MOCA closed February 11, but it's not too late for you to tour the exhibit with the artist himself, Takashi Murakami.

For the past year, MOCA has had a presence on YouTube where you can watch clips of Murakami explain his artwork. This retrospective of his work was outstanding - a real treat. Takashi Murakami, a neo-pop artist, has definitely taken forms of Japanese popular culture manga (comic books) and anime (animation), as well as Andy Warhol's notion of his "factory," into the stratosphere. The execution of the work is pristine, and the imagery is whimsical - certain to bring a smile to your face.

February 04, 2008

To effectively create a document in Photoshop requires some planning. After teaching Photoshop for many years, I have had the opportunity to observe many of my students, who even at the end of the semester, create files that print poorly or take forever to download on their website.

My suggestion to new users, as well as experienced users, is to ask yourself two simple questions before you begin working on a document: 1) Is this file going to be used for print or the internet? and 2) What do the physical dimensions of my project need to be (i.e., pixels, inches, etc.)? After you have answers to these questions do the following:

Create a new document in Photoshop. Select New under the File menu, or click Command + N (Mac) or Control + N (Windows).

Insert the desired physical dimensions in the dialog box. When designing for print, I find it easier to work in inches, and when I'm designing for the Web I work in pixels.

Next you'll need to insert the resolution for your document. A simple rule to follow is to use 300 ppi for print and 72 ppi for the Web.

After following these 5 steps, you should have a clean white canvas/paper on which you can work. Don't change the resolution, image size, or canvas size at any time. This will be the document into which you will paste or drag the image, or images, you wish to create, edit, etc. and then print or publish on the Web.